Celebrations are underway in this eleventh Thrush Green book, from 1992. A statue of Nathaniel Patton has graced the green for years, but little is known of the village's most distinguished son until an unexpected letter arrives. When it reveals that 100 years have passed since the opening of Patton's mission school in Africa, coinciding with the centenary of Thrush Green's own village school, the townsfolk decide to combine the festivities for a very special occasion—though things never go quite as planned in this little corner of the Cotswolds. In this book, like the others in her two intertwined series, Miss Read's wry chronicles of the neighboring towns of Thrush Green and Fairacre in the Cotswolds district of England take readers to a bygone world of charming eccentrics and stalwart characters. When troubles arise they are handled with a combination of manners, a bit of the stiff upper lip, and the occasional good-natured compromise.